- 2023-06-16
Trade analysis between China and ASEAN and RCEP countries from January to May this year
China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partner for three consecutive years, and continued to be each other's largest trading partner from January to May this year. Xu Ningning, executive director of the China-Asean Business Council and chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, recently said in an interview with reporters that trade between the two sides shows vitality and resilience and continues to show a rising trend.
The ASEAN-China Business Council is one of the dialogue and cooperation mechanisms between China and ASEAN countries. Xu Ningning said that in the first five months of this year, trade between China and ASEAN reached 2.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.9% year-on-year, 5.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of China's total foreign trade in the same period. Trade between China and ASEAN accounted for 15.4% of China's total foreign trade, compared with 14.8% in the same period last year, an increase of 0.6%. Trade between China and ASEAN plays an important supporting role in China's foreign trade.
Xu Ningning said that in the past three years, China's top three trading partners are ASEAN, the European Union and the United States. In the first five months of this year, the trade volume between China and the EU was 2.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year. Trade between China and the US was Rmb1.89tn, down 5.5 per cent year on year. Trade between China and ASEAN is 310.68 billion yuan more than that between China and the EU, the second largest trading partner, widening the gap.
Xu Ningning said that from January to May this year, in the trade volume between China and ten ASEAN countries, the top five countries are Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, with year-on-year growth of 4.8%, 6.6%, 6.7%, 35.1% and 11.2% respectively.
The 10 members of ASEAN are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
China's trade with other RCEP countries
On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect, creating the world's largest free trade area. On June 2 this year, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) officially entered into force for the Philippines, making the RCEP fully effective for 10 ASEAN countries and 15 signatories including Australia, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.
Xu Ningning introduced that from January to May 2023, China and the other 14 RCEP member states combined imports and exports of 5.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.5%. Among them, the trade volume between China and Japan was 902.66 billion yuan, down 3.5% year-on-year; The trade volume between China and the ROK was 878.71 billion yuan, down 9.0% year-on-year; The trade volume between China and Australia was 672.94 billion yuan, up 19.4% year on year; The trade volume between China and New Zealand was RMB 64.48 billion, down 7.1% year-on-year.
In China's trade with other RCEP countries, China's trade surplus with Singapore is the largest, reaching 153.85 billion yuan. China's trade deficit with Australia was the largest at 241.22 billion yuan.
In the trade between China and other RCEP countries, the top three countries in terms of import and export trade are Japan, South Korea and Australia, the top three countries in terms of export value are Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, and the top three countries in terms of import value are Australia, Japan and South Korea.